Ring-necked parakeet

I'd been told that there were ring-necked parakeets (Psittacula krameri) in our local Northcliffe Park. I'd heard them calling (squawking!) but never seen them until I spotted a pair in a small tree. The one in front is the female, without a neck ring, and the male is behind, though he never showed himself so that I could get a good picture. Initially they are quite thrilling to see, very exotic birds compared to most of our native species. Then you come to realise that they are a pest, on a par with grey squirrels and Japanese knotweed: big, noisy and outsmarting our native species when it comes to food and nest sites, whilst breeding prolifically. No-one knows how or when they started to spread in the wild in this country. It's likely they began from captive birds that escaped or were freed. At first they were confined to the south-east and London area but populations have spread dramatically since the 1970s.